Recently, Lightspeed announced that we’ve raised over $7B in new capital to serve founders across the globe, of which $4.5B is dedicated to growth-stage companies.
Our growth investing strategy has been a source of strength at Lightspeed on a global scale and a muscle we continue to invest behind. We’ve invested north of $3B in growth-stage companies over the past 2 years — we’re committed to leading new and subsequent rounds for the best-performing companies and help entrepreneurs go the distance. Some of our recent investments where we’ve led or significantly participated in include Arctic Wolf, BetterUp, Cato, Carta, ClickUp, Dexterity, Faire, Glean, Grafana, Handshake, Matillion, Moveworks, Multiverse, Payhawk, Personio, Razorpay, Seismic, Thoughtspot, TripActions, and Wheel.
As part of our growth strategy, we’ve also built a Reinvestment Team (formed over 3 years ago) to not only independently challenge every follow-on decision and growth investment we make, but to also work with founders as thought partners on their journey to build at-scale, enduring businesses. We help CEOs and their teams explore capital raises, benchmark performances, stress-test operating plans and its assumptions, and navigate the new valuation environment. Moreover, having a tightly integrated operating cadence between our growth and early partners both in the US and globally amplifies this knowledge sharing with companies inside and outside our portfolio.
As we continue to navigate uncharted waters, we’re thrilled to welcome Shaurya Aggarwal as the newest member of the Reinvestment Team at Lightspeed to help strengthen our Growth practice.
Shaurya joins Lightspeed after stints at Bain Capital where he learned to fundamentally evaluate companies, and at McKinsey, where he gained operational experience across a broad range of functions — from M&A to procurement. Shaurya got first-hand exposure to learning what it takes to build a successful company — from hiring the right people to determining the best go to market strategy. He also grew up watching his father run a travel e-commerce startup in India and was inspired by his entrepreneurial drive. When he’s not working, Shaurya loves to run, hike, and play basketball.
Raising capital is the first step on a long journey. We’re thankful to the founders who align with us and choose us to partner with them on their companies. We aim to be the first call rather than just show up once a quarter, and we limit the number of boards we sit on to allow us to go deep with each company, whether it’s recruiting, GTM strategy, or just to be a sounding board.
Please join us in welcoming Shaurya into the Lightspeed family and reach out to us if you are building a special growth-stage company.
Written by James Ephrati & Will Kohler
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